Midwest Living Review

Damaine Vonada

Spend a fun day or two sampling Missouri wines at seven premiere wineries among the rolling hills around Hermann.

Hermann's wine tradition reaches back almost 175 years, so its wine trail offers activities you won't find elsewhere, such as being able to walk into underground wine cellars dug by hand before the Civil War. Although the wineries are all within 20 miles of Hermann, it takes a couple of days to do them justice. The trail primarily follows State-00, a scenic road that twists and turns through the wooded hillsides. From west to east, the wineries include Adam Puchta Winery, Stone Hill Winery, Hermannhof Winery, OakGlenn Winery, Bias Vineyards and Winery, and Robller Winery.

The Hermann Wine Trail hosts several great events throughout the year—a Chocolate Wine Trail in February and a Berry Wine Trail in July, for example—which include great food and lots of sampling at every stop. Expect big turnouts for those shindigs, but the trail manages the crowds well.The Norton grape (a.k.a. Cynthiana), a native variety that yields a fruity red wine, is Missouri's dominant wine grape and all seven wineries along the trail use it. (This region produces a third of the state's wine.) However, the wineries are increasing their planting of French hybrids, so visitors will find a good variety of reds and whites and a pretty even mix of dry and sweet. Both wine aficionados and casual drinkers will come away happy.